صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

apprehenfions enlarge immenfely the sphere of his happiness or mifery. Numberless objects offer themselves to his contemplation; and the exercise of his understanding becomes a fource of pleasure or of pain to him. Suitable to the dignity and extent of his powers are the inlets of his joys and forrows. It is religion alone that is able fully to supply the former, and alleviate the latter and attention to this fubject will convince us that the exhortation, Rejoice evermore, can only be addreffed with propriety to the person who believes in religion. For I would observe in the second place, that a belief in the existence of an almighty, all-wife, benevolent Being, and in his righteous government of the world, affords a genuine and rational pleasure to the human heart.

This belief is the foundation and groundwork of religion. For every one that cometh to God muft believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently feek him. How comfortless fhould we be if we knew neither whence we fprung, nor how we are fupported, if we never regarded the hand

that

f Heb. vi. 6.

that bestows our bleffings, nor derived confolation under misfortunes from the reflection that every thing is regulated by unerring wifdom! If the fun did not illuminate the world, if his beams did not revive and quicken both the animal and vegetable creation, how dreary a wilderness would this earth appear ! But it is the obfervation of a heathen, that it would be lefs irksome and melancholy, if the fun were extinguifhed, than if men lived without any thought or perfuafion of a fupreme being and a directing providence. The confideration of these truths elevates the mind, composes the tumultuous, and restrains the diforderly paffions, and fills the foul with a kind of facred rapture. The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice, and the ifles thereof be glad. Because the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, let us be glad, and rejoice, and give bonour to him. Such fentiments correfpond to our natural feelings. They do not force their way to the heart, but they meet with an easy and grateful reception. In the most perilous ftate of human life the good man adopts the language of David: God is our re

fuge

8 Pfalm xcvii 1.

h Rev. xix. 7.

fuge and firength, therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be cast into the midst of the fea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the fwelling thereof. Confider the joys of the wicked, and obferve upon what frivolous causes they depend. Their mirth generally arises from full health, good fpirits, pleafant company, thoughtless fecurity, much liquor, profperous affairs, and fuch like circumftances. An alteration happens in thefe. Their health is difordered, their pulfe becomes quick and intermitting, their spirits flag, their affairs decline, their friends defert them, their consciences are roufed. Such things will often happen. Alas, what paleness seizes the ruddy cheek! with what alarms do their hearts tremble! what defpondence in the downcaft eye! what tremulous agitation in the feeble joints! They have laid up no provifion for this tremendous hour. They never thought that their fun would fet: and he hath withdrawn his beams, and left them in an unknown, bleak and defert country. But

tell

i Pfalm xliii. 1, 2, 3.

i

tell me in what state of life can a good man be placed, wherein a persuasion of a supreme Being, and a conviction of his righteous and wife administration, will not afford him joy and confolation? In youth and old age, in health and sickness, in prosperity and adverfity, they are suitable and fupporting subjects of meditation.

In the third place: The representation which religion gives us of the nature of our prefent ftate and of the immortality of our fouls, infufes pleasure and hope into the mind. Amidft the ftruggles of human life, a good man looks forward to a better world with pleafing expectation.

We are taught by religion, that the prefent life is a state of trial and difcipline, that we are placed here to act a certain part which will be attended with confequences of the utmost duration and highest importance.Without the knowledge and conviction of these truths, what joy could we expect to poffefs? If we were of a serious and thoughtful temper, and had only hope in this life, we fhould be of all creatures the most miserable. On the other hand, the man who fhould run a perpetual round of diffipation

and

and folly, whofe views were not extended beyond the fleeting term of human life, whose imagination never foared above that spot of ground on which he trode, though he might eat, and drink, and laugh, and dance, and be I should have no hesitation to promerry, nounce that he was yet a ftranger to the pleasures that are worthy of a reasonable being.

Early in life we are apt to look upon this world as a very pleasant theatre, upon which we may act a fhort but mirthful part. We are ready to fay, Let us rejoice in the days of our youth; but we have not proceeded far till we meet with many things to make us fober and thoughtful. We perceive an evident difproportion between the pleasures of folly and the powers of a man, and we seek about for fomething to fupport a disappointed, doubting, anxious mind. This is only to be found in religion. Religion teaches us that our business is important; but that the proper discharge of it will be attended with the most beneficial confequences. It discovers that there is a part allotted as suitable to our faculties, and an exercise worthy of that nature which is bestowed on us. Under these views

we

« السابقةمتابعة »